Student projects selected for Alt.Ctrl:GDC

Every year, the best and brightest of the game industry gather in San Francisco for the Game Developers Conference (GDC). As part of the 5 day event the organizers also host alt.ctrl.GDC – an on-site showcase of unique games built around alternative control schemes and interactions. Or in their own words: “a chance to play some of the most inventive and innovative games around using unique, one-of-a-kind controllers.”
This year, two of our student teams will be present! Among […]

Dagger Concepts

Since I already finished my sword, I was advised not to spend more time on it just because, but rather spend the final weeks of the Brushforge class applying what I have learnt on a new weapon. Since repetition is key to learning, I started concepting a dagger.

I went through the journey of coming up with a story, developing it with the help from some feedback, sketching, self doubt, sketching some more, wondering how others manage to create such […]

Tower Defence – Path Finding

Tower Defence – Path Finding
Introduction
My tower defence implementation doesn’t need path finding, since the map will be static.
However there are two reasons I have spent the past few days learning about the topic:

I have hardly any knowledge about the subject, specially not implementation details.
It’s a very common mechanic in games, knowing the basics feels important.

A*
When reading about path finding and 2D games, the A* (pronounced A start) algorithm was by far the most mentioned approach.
The more I read the clearer […]

Self Help App: ALPHA and BETA build

Hello! It’s been quite a while since I last wrote (more than a month… shame on me) and a lot has happened since.
I mentioned last time that I was close to finishing an ALPHA version of my self help app, which I did! I should have posted about that here, but I completely forgot. If you’re interested, you can find the build and the survey to go with it over here.
However! Since it’s been a while since I finished […]

Alumni Days 2016 gallery

Looking for details about the Alumni Days? Check this post. The YouTube playlist is available here.




















































Posted in Blog by Ulf Benjaminsson

The Adamite engine, first groundwork and laying out future plans

This blog is here to document my thoughts and my progress on projects I’m making. The first such project is creating an engine for the course “game programming in 2D”, which I’m currently doing at the GAME education on Uppsala University, campus Gotland.
In the course we’ll be using C++ and SDL2  to create a game engine. I’ve chosen to not follow our course director Jerry’s design, which uses raw-pointers and new-delete architecture. Instead I’ve decided to keep to what we’ve […]

Handpainted Sword

Over the past 7 or 8 weeks I have been taking a class from Brushforge in handpainted weapons, where we have gone through the process from design to finished textured 3D model.
This is where I started out with my first coloured concept sketches:

During the first two weeks, a lot thanks to some really awesome feedback, it developed into this:

It is a sword that belonged to a paladin, ages ago, given to him by the High Lord. Whenever in the […]

Tower Defence – The Plan

Tower Defence – The Plan
Introduction
Currently I’m attending the course Game Programming 1: Computer Games in 2D at Uppsala University with Jerry Jonsson as the course director.
As part of the course, I will be creating a game during the coming six weeks.
I think the description of the assignment sums up the task quite nicely.

This first part is an individual assignment to create a game using C/C++ and Simple DirectMedia Library (SDL). The game should be a clone of a classic […]

The fuse has been lit!

The website for GGC 2017 is live, which means the time and place have been set! The conference theme, speakers and tickets will be announced in the coming weeks and months.
Until then you can add the dates to your calendar – 29-30 May 2017, reserve a ferry or plane ticket to Visby, and subscribe to our feed and/or the Facebook page to be notified of any updates.
Don’t know what GAME and the GGC is […]

WIP 4 – Assignment 3

Today, I have finished my second character – Jim Broadbent. I will add more asymmetry and texture if there is time.

Game Design class, 2nd year Pre production kick off!

Second years are at the pre-production phase in the project and I am SUPER excited to see how this goes!!Now, dividing groups is a hard task. As suggested by one of my students, and backed up by my colleague, was that the students themselves give … – Läs hela inlägget här

New things

I have upgraded the graphics of the Playable ship, now it is closer to completion. I did this by adding some temperature shifts, as well as shadows and lightning. I have separated the engine axle, the turret and the balloon so that they may be animated separately from the ships body. This allows for the animations of the parts to be controlled by player input. The idea is that the player can change the angle of the turret, however the […]